Y2k4climate

Take a moment to think back to simpler times, to a long-gone era exactly 20 years ago this week, when we celebrated the dawn of a new millennium under the shadow cast by Y2K.

AUDIO • Le bug de l'an 2000, épisode 2/2 : La catastrophe qu’on n'attendait pas. Une série inédite proposée par France Culture. Écoutez Salle des archives, et découvrez nos podcasts en ligne.

Facilitating Understandings of Climate Change

Opinion

What lessons can we learn from how the world dealt with Y2K to put organizations on the road to sustainability?

This week’s Current Climate, which every Saturday brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability.

Some remember the computing scare as a bad joke. But the collective, worldwide effort to prevent calamity could be a model for handling global warming.

Facilitating Understandings of Climate Change

Answer (1 of 7): I see very few if any parallels between the two. The Y2K hysteria was based on anticipated issues resulting from common programming practices to use a 2 digit year instead of a 4 digit year. This can become an issue during date comparison functions where 99 would be greater tha

Les mesures pour prévenir le bug du millénaire étaient-elles du gâchis ou de l'argent bien dépensé?

Author Peter Feikowsky thinks the world could reach net-zero emissions and begin to draw down atmospheric CO2 and methane levels within a decade.

On Dec. 31, 1999, USC students rang in the New Year in a variety of fashions. But they all faced the prospect of a global IT implosion, now that each year was about to start with a two instead of a one.

On the cusp of the new millennium, fear of the Y2K software meltdown thrust governments and corporations into swift, preventative action. There could be important lessons here for those working against the clock on climate change. [5 ¾ min read]

Year 2000 problem is just first of what will prove to be nasty legacy of date-related computer problems; dates of some problems are known, but others are deeply embedded in programs and even operating systems where they may give no advance warning; most result from using limited number of digits to represent time and date on computer; photo (M)